Wednesday, October 31, 2012

[Here
is an amazing update on Ann M.'s case, written by Ann herself. The names
of all of the children have been altered, but the names of professionals have
not been changed.]

Hi
Lundy,

I want to thank
you again for blogging about my case earlier this year.

Here are the
latest events: My ex took me to court saying he should have full custody of the
last minor child, Emma, age 16. Ezra and Will are at college and the three oldest
are out of the house. Five days before the trial my attorney told me he would
need an additional fifteen thousand dollars to represent me in court saying he
had already used up the other five thousand I gave him just reading up on my
case.

So I represented
myself, knowing God would be my defense! We did great! My ex's first witness
was Dr. Douglas Darnall, a "Parental Alienation Syndrome" expert from
Ohio. He made lots of outrageous statements about my alleged alienating
behavior but stated that the "Parent Alienation" conclusion doesn't
"work" if there was domestic violence. So when I cross-examined my ex
I went through more than 20 incidents on the restraining orders and police
reports, asking him if on such and such a date he remembers picking me up and
throwing me out of the bedroom and locking the door, etc., etc. He admitted to
some of the violence and the suicide threats. He admitted knowing the 15 and 17
year-olds were afraid to drive with him because of a previous incident that
happened while we were still married. He also admitted to texting Will, who was
17 at the time, from the scene of two accidents (six months and three months prior
to when I was put in jail) telling them he had just totaled his vehicle. Then
he admitted insisting later that they drive with him to parenting time.

(I was
put in jail because the kids refused to drive with him to his house. They
wanted to drive their own car. When I got out of jail they were told by their
father's attorney that they could now drive themselves to parenting time.)

I also had an
opportunity to cross examine Ben Burgess, the Friend of the Court investigator
who wrote in the investigative report that it appears that domestic violence
did occur in the home, but that he believed from his investigation that
there was severe parent alienation going on by Ann M.. On that basis, he
had recommended that parenting time for the father start, progressing over time
to unsupervised overnights at their father's house. When I asked him who were
the "experts" that he said he had interviewed during his
investigation, he said that was confidential information. When I pressed him,
Judge Hulsing asked him who it was. Hulsing said, "Who was it?" three
times before Mr. Burgess said, "Mariel Silverman." Mariel is my
daughter, which means that he had lied the last time he was on the stand,
saying he had interviewed "experts" to confirm the parental alienation
conclusion.

Mr. Burgess
admitted on the stand that my kids had all said there should be no parenting
time. Then he admitted that once supervised parenting time with their father began,
he was only present the first two sessions. (Ezra and Emma were to meet their
father once a week at a restaurant.) Then he admitted never contacting them
after that to see how it was going. He admitted that he didn't know it had stopped
after 8 weeks. He admitted that four months went by and he still did not know the
parenting time had stopped even though he was the supervisor. Then he admitted
to texting their older sister Mariel, age 27, to see how parenting time was
going. She told him that the kids were doing great now with their father out of
their lives.

Then I asked him
why he was texting Mariel pictures of his kids fishing. He said he only sent one. (That's not what Mariel
told me. She felt like he was "hitting" on her.) Then I asked Mr.
Burgess why he texted Mariel last week asking her to find out about some letter
"this Wendi person" mailed. I asked him what was that all about and
why was he asking Mariel to find out about some other case. I said, "Mariel
feels like you are hitting on her!" At that point, Judge Hulsing
interrupted and changed the subject.

All in all, these
witnesses had revealed that Judge Hulsing falsely put me in jail and that it
wasn't parental alienation, it was domestic violence. Mariel told me later that
Ben Burgess texted her ten times from the courtroom saying negative things
about how I was doing. She said she responded a couple of times to try to get
information on how it was going. Then he texted her, "Do you really think
I'm hitting on you?"

Judge Hulsing
gave me full legal and physical custody of Emma. God delivered me of my fear of
my ex and Judge Hulsing that day. I am still rejoicing!